Apparatus for softening and purifying water.



No. 677,669. Patented July 2, MN.

6. H. KOYL. APPARATUS FOR SOFTENING AND PURIFYING WATER.

(Application filed Feb. 11, 1901.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

W1 TNESSES:

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UNITED STAT S- P TENT OFFrcE.

CHARLES HERSCHEL KOYI I, OF-NEVV YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR SOFTENING AND PURIFYING WATER.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent N O. 677,669, dated July 2, 190

I Application filed February 11, 1901- SerialNo. 46,834. (No model.) I

To ("all whom it may concern: v

Be it known that I, CHARLES HERSCHEL KOYL, a citizen of I the United States, and a resident of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Softening and Purifying Water; and I hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being made to the accompanying drawings. I

In Letters Patent of the United States N 0. 653,011, issued to me July 3, 1900, I have shown the value of allowing or compelling the water from the reaction-tank of a water-softening machine bearin g the fine freshly-formed precipitates to rise through a bed of old precipitate, which acts as a strainer to retain and to hold the new and fine precipitates. In that patent I have illustrated an apparatus in which the accumulated precipitate of the settling-tank is used for this purpose, the water from the reaction-tank being compelled to enter at the bottom of the settling-tank and to rise through this bed of precipitate. One of the beneficial results of carrying this expedient into practice is that I am able to use settling-tanks of very much less size and capacity than would otherwise be possible. In the practice of my said patented invention the beneficial efiect is increased as the mass of the old precipitate is increased; but I am unable to obtain in the coned bottom of the settling-tank sufficient depth to get from the precipitate which can be contained therein all the benefit that would be derived if the mass of precipitate were greater and could therefore act longer in its straining and agglomerating action upon the water from the reaction-tank with its young precipitate in suspension. It is unwise to allow precipitate to accumulate in the settling-tank to any great extent, because of the possibility of its being carried up into the filter through which the soft water passes on its way to the softwater outlet in the settling-tank. With a view, therefore, to obtain the full benefit of the action of the old precipitate upon the water containing the finely-divided precipitate I interpose between the reaction-tank and the settling-tank an independent straining and agglomerating tank, through which the water passes on its way to the settling-tank from the reaction-tank and in which the mass of precipitate may be allowed to accumulate indefinitely. I have found it generally unnecessary to discharge the precipitate from this tank, because as the water is continuously in circulation upward through it a point is finally reached at which the water can hold in I suspensionno more precipitate, and after that the Water flowing out of the top of this tank on its way to the settling-tank regularly carries over with it as much precipitate (agglomerated) as is brought (finely divided) into the bottom of this tank .by the water fresh from the reaction-tank. In this way not only is the water effectively stripped of its precipitate, but I am enabled to still further reduce the dimensions of the settling-tank.

In the accompanying drawings, to which I shall now refer for a more complete understanding of my invention, Figure 1 shows in vertical section an apparatus embodying my invention in its preferred form. Figs. 2 and 3 are vertical sections of modifications in which the reaction and agglomerating tanks are contained within one exterior shell or casing.

A is a tank for solution and supply of lime or other slightly-soluble chemical. Bis the tank'for the solution and supply of Sal-soda or other easily-soluble chemical. C is a re action-tank to which are fed the raw water and reagents in definite amounts and within which these reagents are mixed with and act upon the water to produce precipitates of the material which it is desired to take out of the water, baffle-plates S and rotating stirrers B. being provided to facilitate the mix ing operation. D is the settling-tank, having at the top a filter-bed F and soft-water outlet E and below the filter-bed a series of superposed slitted 0r perforated settling cones H. P is the, supply-pipe for the raw water to be treated. All of these parts thus far described are substantially the same as the like lettered parts in my aforesaid Let ters Patent No. 653,011 and are provided, as shown, with similar appliances for actuating the stirrers and regulating the feed of the raw water and the reagents. A detailed description of these parts is therefore unnecessary, further than to say that l is the box containing the Water-Wheel 2, driven by the raw water from pipe P. 2 is the spout from spout 5.

cals passing into the reaction-tank C. 7 is the shaft actuated by wheel 2 and rotating through gearing 8 9 shafts R R, and 10 is a float which through connections 11 12 13 14 controls valve 15 of pipe P and valve 16 of I come now tus in which my present invention is comprised.

Interposed between the reaction-tank and the settling-tank is the tank T, which I have hereinbefore designated as the agglomerating-tan-k. The bottom of this tank is connected to the bottom of the reaction-tank by a pipe P, through which the treated water carrying the freshly-fornied and finely-divided precipitate passes from the reactiontank into the agglomerating-tank. A valve at P may be provided for opening or closing this pipe when desired for any purposeas, for instance, when it becomes necessary to empty-and clean orrepairthe interior of either one of the two tank's-although,as above said, i

in the normal operation 05 the apparatus it is unnecessary to use the valve. From the top of the agglomerating-tank leads a pipe 15, which opens into the settling-tank D at any suitable point in the lower portion of the latter. 1

The tank T is supposed to be filled practically up to the outlet T with old and agglomerated precipitate in suspension. IVheu the water from the reaction-tank rises through this mass of old precipitate, it is stripped of its freshly-formed precipitate by the time it reaches the outlet T, the finely-divided particles vof this precipitate remaining in the tank T and becoming so agglomerated on bound together that all the particles which as the mass of precipitate accumulates are carried over with the water through the outlet T into the settling-tank are of considerable size and fall to the bottom of the setclogging the filter.

The mass of precipitate which gathers "at the bottom of the settling-tank and which represents the'overfiow from the agglomerea es ating-tank due to the addition of freshlyformed precipitate from the reaction-tank can be drawn 0% daily or as often as desired from the settling-tank.

The apparatus thus organized is highly effective, and the presence of the agglomerating-tank renders it feasible to make the settling-tank of much smaller dimensions than would otherwise be possible and also to reduce the number of settling-cones therein.

In lieu of having two separate structures l for the reaction and agglomerating tanks I to that feature of the apparacan, as shown in Fig. 2, place them both in one shell, which by a vertical partition is divided into the twotanks or chambers C T, which at their bottoms or lower ends communicate with each other through a passage 19, or, as shown in Fig. 3, I can superpose the agglomerating-tank- T upon thereacti'ontank 0, the two being divided by horizontal perforated partitionstor other suitable means which will afiord communication between the two, while preventing the rotary'currents of the reaction-tank from disturbing to any material extent the water of the superposed agglomerating-tank. In this construction the raw water and reagents may be fed to the reaction-tank through the hollow shaft R of the stirrers R, as indicated in the figure.

Having described my invention and the I best way now known to me of carrying the sameinto practical effect, what I claim herein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

In apparatus for the continuous purification of water, a reaction-tank in which the water is chemically treated and the precipitates resulting from that treatment are formed, a settling-tank, and an interposed agglomerating-tank through which the water from the reaction-tank passes on its way to the settling-tank, having at its lower end an inlet communicating with the outlet of the reaction-tank and at its upper end an outlet communicating with the inlet of the settling tank, substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 4th day of February, 1901.

CHARLES l-I-ERSCI-IEL KOYL.

Witnesses:

HENRY 'BEY'ER, H. H. SUTRo. 

